an angry and depressing moment

As a philosophy student (philosopher? I am getting paid for it…), I’ve been made aware of the NYT’s philosophy blog, The Stone. I agree with the articles to varying degrees, but they all seem at least to be well thought out and clearly written (as I’d of course expect). But man, every time I read one of those articles, I can’t help looking at the comments, the vast, VAST majority of which are completely tangential, uncharitable, belligerent, insulting to the author, and in not a few cases just stupid.

I’m grading, and I took a break to eat a little and read the new one… but man my undergrads write less irrelevant nonsense than those people. And these are the people who READ the NYT philosophy blog! A selection bias that you’d think would have made the comments a more positive representation of how people think. Sigh.